Lovely Monsters Chapter 48

When his eyes finally opened, Kim Heejo saw walls of meat filling his entire surroundings. Occasionally, they were similar to the meat walls he had seen while wandering inside the train, but he clearly recognized that these were real. After he blinked a few more times, the illusion was cleanly stripped away. An interior like a cave came into view. The meat walls wriggled and heaved. Eyes of all sizes attached everywhere flashed brilliantly.

“Ha, ha, fuck…”

Everything is alive. Being alive, it was looking down upon the creations that had taken their place inside its body. It was also looking at Kim Heejo, the impurity caught among them.

The eyes, which had narrowed for a moment, returned to a circular shape only after Lion Head, who had found Kim Heejo, stood beside him.

Even if he was a rare impurity, he was ultimately a human and thus a trivial thing. If the creations cherished him, there was no reason not to turn a blind eye.

Becoming aware of that fact with his entire body, Kim Heejo looked at Lion Head for a moment, smirking as if sobbing, and then approached the window. He had to witness the outside world and face the truth. His steps continued toward the edge of the cliff.

Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah… Ah. Ah.

This place is the body of the Absolute, a part of it.

One of the countless legs attached to the head. Numerous legs with suckers were entangled together. There was an end, but since the end eventually attached to another leg, the end was practically non-existent. In the distance, wings that seemed like they should belong to a demon moved sluggishly. The face? He did not dare look at the face. He did not even know if the eyes were looking this way. However, the Absolute sees everyone even without looking. It sees Kim Heejo. Only then did he realize.

That in this place, the existence called a human is very trivial, and his own existence is even more trivial than that.

And yet, he dared to try and look it in the face.

Without knowing his place.

“I was wrong. I was all wrong.”

A creation must merely worship, and worship, and worship the eternal Absolute. Before that presence, I obey, I am dominated, I prostrate, and I worship. I merely praise your existence. Forgive me for daring to look upon you. You, who are immortal and eternally great. You, who led me here… Please forgive me. Please forgive me. Please forgive me. Please forgive me. Please forgive me. Please forgive me. Please forgive me. Please forgive me. Please forgive me. Please forgive me. Please forgive me. Please forgive me. Please forgive me. Please forgive me. Please forgive me. Please forgive me. Please forgive me.

“I was all… all wrong. Never again. I, I won’t do it again. Please forgive m—.”

“…Shh.”

“Ah, ugh, uugh.”

Lion Head embraced Kim Heejo from behind and covered his eyes with his rough hands. At the same time, the thoughts that were being engraved into his head against his will were abruptly cut off.

[Do not look.]

“Heuuuu, hup…”

[If you continue to look at the Great One, your brain will cook in fear and you will go mad.]

It was unmistakably a human voice, yet within that bizarre sensation where words felt written into his mind rather than heard, Kim Heejo suddenly became curious.

Do I… even have a brain? In the first place, are there even any organs left in this body that could be called such? Kim Heejo panted painfully and asked Lion Head, but instead of answering, the monster made him turn around. Subsequently, he painted an illusion over his eyes so that he could no longer see the outside. With a single touch from Lion Head, Kim Heejo became unable to see the traces of the Absolute again.

Outside the window, it is very dark and white snow is piled up thickly, yet a rainshower falls. The snowfield, unmarred by the rain, sparkled like jewels. It was a spectacle impossible in the world of humans.

And this place is the inside of a train where no end appears no matter how far one goes. And myself, who is within it.

Even if he became unable to see it, it did not mean his memory would disappear, so Kim Heejo was terrified. But, because of that, he wanted to leave this place even more. There was too much waiting for Kim Heejo in the outside world. More than anything, his beloved Choi Sung, no, Choi Yu—

“…….”

Choi Yujeong. Choi Yujeong. Choi Yujeong. Choi Yujeong. Choi Yujeong. Choi Yujeong.

Thinking the name repeatedly as if driving a nail into his consciousness, Kim Heejo soon felt an unbearable chill and wrapped his arms around his body. Large streams of tears heavily soaking his cheeks drew countless lines on his face and chin.

“I want to go out, I want to go back now…”

[What if this place is better?]

Kim Heejo looked at Lion Head with a face drenched in tears. His wide-open eyes shook despairingly, but Lion Head’s voice continued to be transmitted.

[What if you are here because this place is better?]

“…….”

[Since you have reached the truth on your own, you can reach other truths as well.]

As Lion Head spoke and stepped aside, the door to Room 12 was visible behind him.

It was a door that looked completely different from the guest room doors he had opened countless times until now, yet for some reason, it looked familiar to Kim Heejo’s eyes.

Because when he was alone, there was nothing to look at but that door. Terrified of whether that door would open, or who would enter if it did, he had only been trembling so hard that his teeth clattered.

Kim Heejo knows that door.

And so, he also knew… that it must not be opened.

[If you want to go out, you must open that door; do you still want to go out?]

In the midst of a dilemma, he finally reached out both hands. Compared to how he had feared what might emerge, the thing inside was a person—someone who looked like a person wearing a black plastic bag over their head. Kim Heejo, who had held his breath for a moment, saw the writing on the bag.

[The person who put Kim Heejo on the hell=train]

Lion Head, who had followed him in, stood beside him.

“Is it… a person?”

At the question, Lion Head shook his head. Looking closely, although it was wearing clothes, the torso was similar to a mannequin’s. Kim Heejo, who had approached, soon recoiled in horror and backed away. As soon as he got close, the plastic bag moved. Whether the opponent was breathing heavily, the bag repeatedly shriveled and expanded. Kim Heejo reflexively reached out and stripped the bag off.

There was a human face instead of a monster’s. It was not a pleasant sight. The skin was pale like a corpse and bruised in places, and the eyes were black and dead. It was a wonder that it could breathe through its white, blistered lips, but that, that… was Kim Heejo himself. A Kim Heejo with a face so identical it could be mistaken for looking in a mirror burst into tears while looking at Kim Heejo himself.

“It’s me?”

“…….”

“I did?”

“Because I was deceived.”

“…….”

“There were plenty of reasons to doubt, but I kept thinking, ‘no way’.”

There is no way.

However, Kim Heejo, who could not stop crying, looked straight at Kim Heejo and said.

“There’s no way. It can’t be. It’s a hallucination. Let’s not have useless doubts. Have I watched too many movies? That makes no sense. There must just be something he hasn’t told me. We can’t tell each other every single thing. Thinking like this is also wrong. Instead of having these worries, let’s just ask him directly.”

Kim Heejo, unable to say anything, unknowingly clutched his head. In reality, nothing had touched him, but a pain as if a hatchet were slowly splitting his head open struck him down. After that, it was just pain. If he bled profusely and the things inside overflowed, he might at least die, but that did not happen, so he merely suffered—

“…In the end, though, I couldn’t ask because I was scared.”

When Kim Heejo raised his head, the mannequin shattered into pieces. Watching his own fragments rolling on the floor, Kim Heejo could not even breathe and merely moved his lips. Lion Head grabbed the shoulders of the collapsing Kim Heejo and stood him up. Kim Heejo, forced to stand on his two feet, realized the other’s gaze was fixed on his left arm and looked at the same spot.

[Even if you go out, you will find yourself wanting to come back here. If despair becomes too great, anywhere you are will eventually become hell… When that time comes, you only need to remember one thing. That you only need to give up one thing.]

The place where twenty cigarettes had been extinguished.

That wound, which he had thought was healed and gone, was clearly and vividly engraved again. Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah—the sound of the scream let out by Kim Heejo as he recalled the agony grew louder and louder. But the reason he was truly in pain was not because of the physical pain inflicted on his body.